This specification relates to manufacturing products.
Manufacturers can construct products that are assembled, for example, from any number of parts and sub-assemblies. Each sub-assembly can be made from any number of parts and/or other sub-assemblies. The parts needed to build a product can be specified, for example, in a bill of materials, a parts list, or in some other specification.
Manufacturers can maintain and/or use inventories of parts, sub-assemblies and assemblies. At any given time, a manufacturer may have parts in inventory, for example, to build one or more products. Decisions to build products, for example, can be based on existing parts in inventory and the cost and/or other factors in finding parts that are needed.